Hisar: Sarpanch booked over caste row

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 6

The case of a woman who reportedly married outside her caste and was elected as the sarpanch of Dhani Mirdad village has turned out to be tricky for the police and the administration in Hisar.

The woman, Durga Devi, belonging to Naik community, has contested for the post of sarpanch in Dhani Mirdad village and got elected by defeating her rival Nisha. The post of sarpanch was reserved for the BC (A) category in this village.

However, complainant Punit Indora alleged that Durga Devi belonged to the Scheduled Caste community and thus had produced forged documents which showed her as a person belonging to the BC (A) category. The complainant stated that she was married to an SC youth of the Dhani Mirdad village, Sombir. Though Durga Devi belonged to a different caste, her caste was also classified as SC in Haryana, he alleged.

The Barwala police registered a case under various sections of the IPC for forgery against the newly elected sarpanch Durga Devi, her husband Sombir and another person Satish and started the investigation.

A senior administrative official said a perusal of the matter revealed that she belonged to Heri/Naik caste of a village in Charkhi Dadri district and had tied the knot with Sombir who belonged to the SC category about four years ago. The official said the Heri/Naik caste earlier was categorised as BC (A) while the state government had notified it as SC about six years ago.

“There are many cases similar to this case in the state as Heri/Naik earlier belonged to BC (A). So some persons are using the earlier certificates, which showed the caste in the category of BC (A) while others had got their category updated to the SC status”, the official stated.

Meanwhile, the complainant had alleged that Durga Devi had updated her caste status after getting married, but then got the certificate of BC (A) category issued which was a case of forgery.

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